Our Sacred Gardens

My garden, newly planted.

My friend Christina has a beautiful vegetable garden that she and her husband built a couple of years ago. She enjoys growing and sharing beautiful flowers and gorgeous veggies and fruits from the Spring to the end of Fall. I visited her garden when it had just been built. I am not gonna lie. I had full-out garden envy. Check out a HHY! podcast about the upside of envy here.

Lettuce, beans and zucchini

Several weeks after I had built and planted my raised bed garden Christina and her husband came for a visit. I showed her my basil and rosemary, my zucchini, beans and cucumbers, kale and tomatoes.

Several weeks later...

She gave me the gardener's green thumbs up. She agreed with me that I may have over-zealously planted my tomatoes too close together and I had possibly more zucchini than I could ever eat or manage to give away. Encouraging me, she told me to “just let it go and see what happens.” This advice sat well with me. It felt like freedom. I had planted some seeds and I had permission from my garden guru to let my first attempt at gardening be just what it is. I could tend to it gently and observe and learn what it had to teach me.

So I tended to my little garden for a month or two, loving it gently, lightly weeding and pruning here and there, but mostly following my dear friend’s advice to “just let it go.” My zucchini was downright prolific. I made zucchini lasagna, ratatouille, baked zucchini, sautéed zucchini. I still need to make some bread. I used my kale in green smoothies. My basil was fragrant and delicious. My husband especially enjoyed the cucumbers, fresh and crisp and delicious. My garden experiment brought me great joy.

Gorgeous little village in Germany

Then we left for a two week summer vacation.

I asked two friends to help themselves to zucchini and cucumbers and keep an eye out for my soon-to-peak tomato plants. I felt good about my garden and tried to relax about letting someone else be in charge.

Vacations can be both wonderful and discombobulating.

It’s great to get away, refresh and see new things. It’s hard to come back to what you have to catch up with. Life moves forward. Bills need to be paid, gardens need to be tended.

I came home from our wonderful European vacation to my tomato plants all a tangled mess with tomatoes busting out all over and weighing the vines down. Some were buried under the twisted mess and unable to receive sunshine necessary for ripening. Even though I had a couple of people helping tend my garden while I was away, nobody really cares for your garden like you do. I like to keep things tidy and organized and pruned, caring for issues as they come up and not letting them get too far out of hand. It’s a control thing with me. It’s just the way I roll. Recalling my friend’s wise counsel, I decided to be OK with it. I was “letting it go” after all.

Whoa!

This is true of most things in my life. I am a 3 on the Enneagram, and an oldest child. I like balance. I like neat and tidy. Clutter and disharmony really throw me off center. So vacations, while fun, are often challenging. 

There are some things in life that, despite our best intentions, just get out of hand. We gain a few pounds, we have more week left at the end of our money, we lose touch with friends from our past. We “let things go” and it doesn’t feel so good. 

Over in Europe we saw so many old cities with buildings, beautiful architecture, that had been carefully designed and maintained. It’s amazing to see those giant cathedrals still standing after thousands of years. Every small village or community has a church. The scenery in the country was breathtaking and the cities were each individual reflections of how they were tended for through years of plague, famine, war, prosperity and abundance. 

It was interesting to see how the city centers were unique. Some were cleaner, designed for walking and gathering and more focused on community, the arts and beauty. Others, were more commercial, less beautiful. The more “commercial” looking cities seemed to have more homelessness and poverty.  

 Budapest Cathedral

We learned what was important to the ruling class and the people by noting what was rebuilt quickly after WW II. In Passau, Germany, for example, they rebuilt the brewery that had been bombed post-haste.

What is sacred and what is not is a question I often ponder. Aren’t we all sacred? Isn’t everything really sacred? Everything. My tomato plants were sacred from the beginning when they were tiny and all full of potential. They were just tiny green orbs when I left for vacation. Aren’t they equally sacred now that they are all twisted and gnarly and weighted down and separated from the light?

Passau, Germany

Some of the huge cathedrals we visited in Europe were created to be sacred for sure. But some were incredibly ornate, busy and pretentious. I can only imagine how small and insignificant people must have felt when they entered those grand doors. These great churches, meant to be a tribute to the Creator, oftentimes cast a large shadow on the very cities they were built to serve.

Made me think about what God was saying to herself watching humans create these giant structures, these villages, towns and cities. 

“Hmmm, well now…Let’s just let this go and see what they do with this,” I imagine.

We grow and we tend and we let things go. We destroy the very things that were created to be sacred. We hurt one another. 

And God…

She watches. And waits for us to invite her into our creation.

My little garden experiment was fun and instructive. In letting it go and observing the nature of creation I learned some things.

1. Creation is good. Creation is of God. We might make mistakes but it's OK. It doesn't make us bad, just human.
2. Nature’s nature is to grow towards the light
3. We need good soil, water, sunshine (and a village) to successfully grow our garden.
4. To flourish it is necessary to clear away obstacles to the light.
5. The fruits of creation are for our own nourishment and enjoyment.
6. Sharing our abundance with others feels good

Yes, we are all sacred beings in a world that often seems desecrated, overgrown, gnarly. But if everything is sacred, perhaps starting small, pruning excess, and paying attention moment by moment is really enough. We are all created to create something, be it a large cathedral or a tiny garden, a poem, a play, a podcast, or a cure for cancer. It’s all sacred. It’s all good.  Try planting a seed,  “letting it go” and watch the magic happen!

Look out my maters. Mama’s coming.

Connie Bowman is an actress, author, yoga instructor and now a proud gardener. For more visit www.conniebowman.com.